March 26, 2010

New Movies and Box Office Predictions: 3/26

This week's wide releases -
Hot Tub Time Machine
How to Train Your Dragon

Alice in Wonderland has been outdoing everyone's expectations and has dominated the box office for its first three weeks of release. Its run is about to be brought to a halt as it will surely fall to the new 3D release this weekend, not to mention to the newly increased ticket prices, but that is a story for another time. This week brings a pair of new releases that could not be more different. The funny thing is that I am really interested in both of them. How about you? Anything of interest out there for you?

Hot Tub Time Machine. (2010, 100 minutes, R, comedy) So, will this be more The Hangover or more Snakes on a Plane? I am hoping for the former, but with a title like this and a concept such as this, I do not want to get ahead of myself. This comedy finds a group of friends who get sent back in time to the 1980's where they try to get out of their future rut by reliving the past. It is  raunchy comedy with a goofy title and an odd high concept that looks like it just may work. On top of that, it has an interesting cast that includes John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke and Crispin Glover (!). It was directed by Steve Pink who also helmed Accepted and was screenwriter of High Fidelity.



How to Train Your Dragon. (2010, 98 minutes, PG, animated comedy) The first trailer for this left me feeling rather non-plussed. It immediately went into the "safe to skip" pile. You know, the movies you don't feel any real urgency in seeing, if ever. Then the subsequent trailers and clips began making the rounds and now I think it looks really quite good. Not to mention the positive buzz that has been floating around on Twitter. It is set in the age of Vikings and they have a terrible dragon problem. At the center is Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is a little undersized and when trying to prove himself he discovers what they thought they knew about dragons was wrong. Their world is about to change. Looking forward to this now!



Also opening this week, but not near me:

  • Ca$h
  • Chloe
  • Dancing Across Borders
  • The Eclipse
  • Godspeed
  • Terkel in Trouble
  • Waking Sleeping Beauty
Box Office Predictions
It is now time for Tim Burton to take his Alice in Wonderland and leave the top spot. The new winner will undoubtedly be How to Train Your Dragon. Its combination of carpetbomb advertising, positive buzz, and the very good looking trailers and clips seems to point it towards the winners circle. Where will the rest fall? I suspect it will be a fight in the lower half and your guess is as good as mine when it comes to guessing where Hot Tub Time Machine will land.

Here is how I think it could play out:
RankTitleBox Office
1How to Train Your Dragon$48 million
2Alice in Wonderland (2010)$18 million
3Hot Tub Time Machine$16.5 million
4Diary of a Wimpy Kid$12 million
5The Bounty Hunter$10 million
6She's Out of My League$4 million
7Repo Men$3.75 million
8Green Zone$3.5 million
9Avatar $3.25 million
10Shutter Island$3 million

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